This Sunday the main action will be at Monmouth Park on the Jersey Shore where top three-year-old colts will be competing in the $1 million dollar Haskell Invitational. While it’s true that this year’s three-year-old division is still lacking a definitive standout – top contenders like Shackleford, Pants on Fire, Ruler on Ice, and Astrology are all expected to be in the starting gate.

The likely morning line favorite is front running Shackleford, who arrived at Monmouth early Wednesday morning. With his main competition for an Eclipse award, Animal Kingdom, out of the game due to an unfortunate injury – this 4th place Derby finisher and Preakness victor has become the de-facto top 3-year-old of the crop. More than anything else Shackleford will love the distance of 1 1/8 miles, the same as his breakout performance where he almost stole the Florida Derby on the front end before getting nipped by Dialed In.

Other horses to watch out for on the tote board will be Pants on Fire who is a coming off a win the Pegasus (Grade 3) at Monmouth back in mid-June. This Kelly Breen trained colt is also a winner at 1 1/8 miles when he captured the Louisiana Derby. In a sad twist, Jockey Rosie Napravnik, who was this year’s stand out female rider, was injured earlier this month in a nasty spill at Delaware Park. Napravnik, who rode Pants on Fire to his two stakes victories this year, will not have her usual mount.

Another dangerous horse is this year’s Belmont winner, Ruler on Ice, also trained by Kelley Breen. In his last workout leading up to the Haskell Invitational, Ruler on Ice worked in tandem with stable-mate Pants on Fire where they ran head-to-head for a half-mile in 47:60. Breen commented that the pair’s work was “absolutely perfect” – so who knows, maybe they’ll run 1-2 giving Breen and owners George and Lori Hall even more of the lucrative $1 million dollar purse.

As of late WinningPonies has produced some very valuable returns for players at Monmouth including a huge score in the Pick-4 (Races 2-5) on July, 25th that returned $5,729. The key selection in this multi-race sequence was our top choice in the second leg (Race 3) of Marlin’s Magic who went off at odds of 8/1. We correctly identified this talented first-time starter who had shown a liking to the surface at Monmouth in his previous workouts. With the Haskell attracting so much money from around the country, the Pick-4, Pick-5, and Pick-6 at Monmouth on Sunday are expected to offer huge pools and large payouts to winning players.